Lady Macbeth

• Antagonist


  A character who drives the protagonist towards murder and bloodshed despite their protests
• Tragic heroine


  A character who starts out in a position of glory and success but falls from grace due to an error in judgement of their own making
• Lady Macbeth is the wife of a Thane, so her husband owns land given to him by the king. She can't possess any land herself, but she lives in luxury and has a good reputation.
• At the time of the play, Lady Macbeth is childless and we don't see any of her family.
• After receiving a letter from Macbeth that informs her of the Witches' prophecies


  She is determined for Macbeth to become king
• Lady Macbeth worries that Macbeth is too tame and hesitant to become king


  So she commits to mocking and tempting him until he gives in
• After Duncan's murder


  Lady Macbeth grows more anxious and blunt
• Ultimately, Lady Macbeth is broken by grief and guilt and takes her own life.
• Motivation


  What drives Lady Macbeth to ensure her husband becomes King
• Possible motivations for Lady Macbeth

  • Fulfilling her role as the devoted, helpful wife
  • Her own ambitions and goals
  • Wanting to be queen and reap the benefits of Macbeth's successes
  • Compensation for her lost children
• Appearance vs Reality


  One of Shakespeare's resounding messages in the play of 'Macbeth' is that nothing is as it seems
• Lady Macbeth's main role in the play is to shake things up and cause havoc, meaning her aim is to fool and manipulate as many people as possible with her deceitful ways.
• Lady Macbeth benefits hugely from the divide between appearances and reality.
• Lady Macbeth relies on people's prejudices and assumptions to get away with her actions. For example, the male characters see she is a woman so assume she would not get involved with violence.
• Feminine wiles


  The persuasive techniques Lady Macbeth uses, taking advantage of social conventions surrounding gender
• Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth over and over to make sure he puts on a facade for other people, believing that as long as they can maintain their deceitful masks, they will get away with murder and so much more.
• Lady Macbeth transfers her desires and plans into Macbeth


  Though Macbeth is the one acting and killing, he is fulfilling Lady Macbeth's wishes
• Gender identity


  Lady Macbeth's gender identity is ambiguous - on the outside she looks feminine, but if her spells were successful, then she is wombless and full of gall on the inside
• Only we, the audience, know the extent of Lady Macbeth's plots and motivations. Other characters on stage are oblivious of who she really is, but we know the dark truth.
• As the plot develops


  Lady Macbeth's own sense of self deteriorates
• Femme fatale


  A mysterious and seductive woman who uses her charm to ensnare men and lead them into dangerous or deadly situations
• Shakespeare uses the aspects of the femme fatale archetype in the character of Lady Macbeth. She threatens to emasculate Macbeth, and uses her power over him as his wife to get her own way.
• The Fall


  An archetype where a character descends from a higher to a lower state, often because something happens to them that means they lose their innocence and happiness
• Arthurian Legend


  Legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, seen as examples for ideal kingship and chivalry
• Lady Macbeth takes a similar role to Morgan le Fay: she is the lover of the story's main hero, but she is also his downfall.
• Marriage and Motherhood


  In the Jacobean Era, a woman's destiny was to get married and have children. Any education she was offered was geared towards these two occupations.
• Within her marriage, Lady Macbeth is a dominant figure with her own clear identity and purpose. Outside of her marriage, she is viewed only as Macbeth's wife and a good host.
• Lady Macbeth tries to banish all her reproductive organs from her body, rejecting the role of mother altogether.
• Gender nonconformity


  If Lady Macbeth was successful in unsexing herself, then her villainy and disturbing personality suggest that gender nonconformity is dangerous
• Lady Macbeth is a very unconventional female character by traditional and Jacobean standards. She is given multiple soliloquies - something that usually only male characters were allowed.
• Lady Macbeth's words aren't supported by her actions
• Lady Macbeth admits that she can't bear looking at Duncan's corpse because he resembles her father
• Unsex


  Lady Macbeth's wish to be made cruel
• After Duncan's murder, Lady Macbeth loses a lot of her confidence. Her ambition disappears, and she is fixated on her paranoia
• Lady Macbeth's ambition was all bravado
• Ambition for Lady Macbeth is an act of sacrifice


  She abandons all hopes of virtue or salvation by calling upon evil spirits
• Lady Macbeth doesn't care for morality and natural order. She doesn't care for other people: they're just obstacles to her goal
• Lady Macbeth is instrumental in planting the idea of murder in Macbeth's head


  She speaks in rhyming couplets while persuading Macbeth to agree to her plan, and her command of rhetoric and manipulation imitates the Witches' spells and trickery
• Lady Macbeth's subversion of femininity was, in Jacobean times, more than enough evidence that she was a witch
• Lady Macbeth could be called the 'creator of evil' in Macbeth. She is the main conspirator out of the Macbeths, and plants the idea of evil in Macbeth's mind